A Place to Get Away From It All.
Solutions / Recreational Retreats
Recreational cabins and modular retreats designed and built in British Columbia, for a lakeside lot, forested acreage or a property you reach by road.
Start with your propertyWho this is for
A Retreat Answers a Different Kind of Property.
These are buildings for places that are not your everyday home: a lake lot, a piece of forest, a rural parcel, a pad in a destination you return to. What fits depends less on the floor plan than on how often you will be there, how the site is reached, what the services are, and what the local rules allow.
Compare the routes
Three Ways to Build a Retreat.
Modular cabins, tiny homes and park models are built differently, sited differently and suited to different properties. Compare them side by side before you settle on a direction.
Modular cabins
Assembled from factory-built components in a controlled shop, then transported and set on a foundation prepared for the site. The route that leaves the most room to shape the building around the land.
Explore modular homes- How it’s built
- Assembled from factory-built components in a controlled shop environment, then transported and set on site.
- Design flexibility
- Layout, glazing and finishes can be adapted within the model’s structure; larger changes move toward a bespoke direction.
- Best suited to
- Forest, lakeside and rural properties where the retreat will be used season after season.
- Site & access
- Delivery access, lifting space and a prepared building area, confirmed before the design is fixed.
- Approvals
- Intended use, certification, property rules, access and servicing decide what fits. All of it is confirmed with you for your jurisdiction.
- Permanence
- Installed as a fixed structure. Relocating it later is not part of the intended use and would need to be assessed separately.
Intended use, certification, property rules, access and servicing govern fit. This comparison is orientation, not an approval: what may be placed on a property is decided by the authority having jurisdiction, and we do not promise it.
Find your fit
Not Sure Which One Fits?
Three questions about how you will use the retreat, what the property is today, and what matters in the building itself.
A provisional starting point only, not an approval, a certification decision or a finance assessment. Permission is settled with your property and your local authority.
Question 1 of 3
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How often will the retreat be used?
This decides more about construction and servicing than the floor plan does.
Verified examples
Models and Work You Can Actually See.
Published models from our current catalogue, and completed projects we have published. Nothing here is a concept drawing.
Published models
Property readiness
What Your Property Needs Before Design.
A short list to work through early. None of it guarantees a retreat can be built. It tells you which questions to answer first, and which to ask of your local authority.
Intended use, certification, property rules, access and servicing govern fit. Permission is decided locally, not by Summit.
A confirmed building area
A level area for the building, and where it will sit on the land.
Access for delivery and lifting
Road, gate and turning space wide enough for transport and a lift.
Water and waste
A well or connection, and a septic or holding arrangement that suits the intended use.
Power
Where the service comes from, and what it costs to bring it to the building.
Local rules
Zoning, permitted use, setbacks, and any covenant or park rules that apply.
How it will be classified
Recreational vehicle, dwelling or another category, decided locally, and it changes what is allowed.
Year-round access
Whether the road is maintained in winter, and who maintains it.
How it works
From First Call to Handover.
The same four Summit stages, with the steps that change for a recreational property. Expand a stage to see what you do, what we do, and what exists at the end of it.
Stage one: Understand · One conversation
Share the property
You describe the land, how you want to use it and what you already know about the site. We listen for the experience you are trying to create.
What you do
- The location and how the property is accessed
- How you plan to use the retreat, and how often
- Any zoning, servicing or site information you already hold
What Summit does
- Understand the experience you want the building to create
- Flag the questions that need answering early
- Give you a straight answer on whether the property is a realistic fit
What you have at the end
A shared understanding of the property, the ambition, and what needs to be resolved before anything is designed.
Stage two: Verify · Depends on available site information
Review the site and the rules
Before design, we look at what the land and the local requirements allow, so the retreat is planned around reality rather than assumptions.
What you do
- Share surveys, well or septic information if you have it
- Confirm access, road conditions and available utilities
- Note any setbacks or restrictions you have been told about
What Summit does
- Review zoning, permitted use and classification questions
- Identify the site work the project will need
- Set out what must be confirmed locally before design proceeds
What you have at the end
A clear picture of what the property supports, and what has to be resolved before the design is fixed.
Total project cost
What the Price Actually Covers.
A retreat has more than one cost. The building is one part of it; the property and the connections are the rest.
01
The building
Model, design work, materials, fabrication and the finishes included in the proposal.
02
Site preparation
Clearing, grading, the building area and access works for your property.
03
Foundations
The pad or foundation designed for the building and the site, including engineering where required.
04
Servicing
Water, power, septic or sewer, and the connections arranged with local providers.
05
Transport and lifting
Delivery distance, transport permits where required, crane or lift, and setting the building.
06
Applicable taxes
Goods and services tax and any other tax that applies, shown separately on the proposal.
No cost range is published here. Figures depend on the property, access, servicing and scope, and are set out in a written proposal with inclusions and exclusions once the direction is defined.
Want a working figure rather than a list of scopes? Compass takes the building, the options and the packages and returns a preliminary investment to react to.
Your next chapter
Have a Place in Mind?
Tell us about the property and how you want to use it. We will tell you what the site still has to answer before a retreat can be planned.